


The Table

by FictionalWorldsAreExquisite



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Humor, all you need to know is tony has a long table, and peter is losing his god damn mind over it, he just wants to sit at the head. for the drama feel. not that he'll admit it, other people are also mentioned but bruce is more heavy so, this is so dumb. enjoy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-25 05:29:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21930718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FictionalWorldsAreExquisite/pseuds/FictionalWorldsAreExquisite
Summary: Tony has a really, REALLY, long table. Peter really wants to sit at the head of it...just to see the whole table, of course. Not for any other reason.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 11
Kudos: 103





	The Table

**Author's Note:**

> Sooo I had one more Christmas story I was going to finish, edit and chuck up tonight just before Christmas but I decided the story didn't actually convey the vibe I was going for so I just left it be. Maybe I'll rewrite it next year or something. But! I still wanted to put something up so I looked through my docs, found two finished anxiety based fics that gave me the anxiety i wrote about in the fic (thanks past me! those might never go up sdfhsdf) but I also found this (apparently I wrote it a month ago exactly)! It's not super long but it's just a dumb little story (with some extraness) about a table that someone might find some humour in. 
> 
> i have another story i'm writing that i really hope i can write properly bc i love the idea behind it. that'll probably be up before the new year unless i just can't make it work or i make it longer than expected. bringing it up bc i really, really love the idea for some reason.

Tony Stark wasn’t an idiot, he was observant and analytical and he noticed what was going on with the people around him. Well, sometimes he missed things and maybe his emotional intelligence could use some work but no one was perfect.

Point was, he’d noticed Peter’s weird obsession with his big table. The first time they went to have dinner together, he didn’t think much of it when they walked past it on the way to the smaller dining room. Kid hadn’t really been up to the penthouse much, he was probably curious.

The second time, he thought pretty much the same thing, Peter knew it was there now but hey, sometimes you want a second look. You can’t judge much off two experiences.

The third time, and the fourth time, and the fifth...well, Tony started observing him more when they headed to eat at the smaller dining table. Peter was still curious of the area and looked around a bit still but he had gotten used to it more. But he always fixated on the big table.

Eventually, when Tony knew that Peter was well aware of his surroundings, and he still fixated on the big table even when he looked at nothing else, Tony started thinking maybe there was something going on inside his head.

It was a big table, to be fair, in a big dining room. It wasn’t used as much anymore but he did used to entertain a lot of guests at once in the past. A small dining room table seating six wouldn’t be much use for that, so he sectioned off that bigger dining room for that purpose. It was specially made for him, that was how unusual the length was, seated about fifty people if he remembered correctly. So yeah, it was an interesting table and not something you see every day (unless you were him). But was it really that interesting?

Maybe. It’s not like it was a crime to be interested in the table. He never actually brought it up with the kid so who knows what was going through his head. 

He’d had the kid coming around for a year now, though he’d known him for longer and they’d eaten dinner together many times during that. Sometimes just with each other, sometimes Pepper was there, occasionally they’d all get together, Pepper, Rhodey, Happy, May, Peter and him. But there’d never been more than six people and so they remained at the small dining room table every time.

If the kid had asked to eat at the bigger table, he certainly wouldn’t have turned him down. But Peter didn’t like asking for things and expecting him to express what he wanted was probably too high an expectation. But for all he knew, maybe the kid was looking at the table in fear. Maybe big tables scared him, maybe it reminded him of something, maybe this or maybe that. Okay, it was a little out there to think he feared big tables but hell! Weirder fears were out there!

Except, tonight they were having dinner all together, with Bruce being invited. He was back in town and he’d contacted Tony and Tony had obviously invited him for dinner. He knew Peter loved his work and Tony would never turn down a little gathering of those close to him.

That made seven. Tony didn’t really think much of it until he asked Peter to help him set the bigger table for dinner and Peter practically froze mid-walking down the hallway, eyes wide, fingers wildly tapping his thigh as he remained walking with a newfound energy that led him to start bouncing down the hallway.

Then the table thing came back to him. Tony guessed the kid was excited? Maybe he had really wanted to sit at the table. Weird thing to be excited about but still undeniably better than Peter getting excited about wanting to do a backflip off Tony’s own tower. His heart just about stopped when Peter mentioned wanting that.

So there they were, setting the big table. Peter had been excited about meeting Bruce but the way he was acting right now was just...bizarre. “Go grab me seven coasters?”

“Sure thing, Mr. Stark!” And off Peter sprinted into the next room. Tony wasn’t joking, he wasn’t exaggerating, he wasn’t playing up the situation in the slightest. It was like someone had set Peter on the 100m track at the Olympics and had just counted down to start time. It was an excessive amount of energy that apparently kept Peter from just remaining still, or even behaving normally.

Peter arrived back just as Tony was putting down a placemat at the head of the table and he jumped onto the wall. Tony put down everything else in his hands and turned to look at the kid questioningly. “Alright, Peter. What the hell was that? Want to tell me what’s going on?”

Peter dropped to the ground, looking sheepish. “Uh. Just remembered that I’m going to be meeting Dr. Banner at dinner. Got excited, sorry!” Which Tony would’ve accepted except he wasn’t meeting his eyes.

“Uh-huh. It’s just weird, because I told you about that earlier and you got excited but there wasn’t...this much of it.”

“Oh. Uh. That’s just because it’s getting closer, you know.”

“I only told you twenty minutes ago.”

“Well, yes. But we’re setting the table now so it feels more concrete, you know?” Peter had taken to laying out the coasters, adamantly not looking at him.

Tony was so confused. What on earth was Peter excited about, more excited about than meeting one of his favourite scientists, that he felt he needed to lie about? Surely this wasn’t still about the table. There was no way the table surpassed _The Bruce Banner_ that Peter kept rambling about whenever the opportunity arose.

“Pete. C’mon. Look at me, tell the truth.” He’d drop it if the kid insisted but he was genuinely stumped and he liked knowing things.

“Uhhh. So who’s going to be sitting where tonight?” Ah. Tony understood now.

“You want to sit next to him? Is that it?” That’d make sense although he was a little offended that he didn’t get the same reception the first time they ate together. In fact, the first time they ate together, Peter devoured a whole pizza before he even started making conversation with Tony. It was like he didn’t exist.

Except Peter paused a little too long before nodding and saying, “yup. That’s it. Definitely. But no big deal, you know. I’ll sit wherever.”

Tony was still clearly missing something but he shrugged it off for the moment, deciding just to observe Peter’s behaviour during dinner. “Sure. You can take the head if you want, that way-”

Tony didn’t even get to finish his sentence before Peter hit the ceiling this time and stuck there. Genuinely, what the fuck.

Instead of saying anything, he just stared up at Peter with his mouth still slightly open like he’d been shocked into silence. And he kind of had, to be fair. Peter stared back down looking like he’d definitely just dug himself a hole.

Externally Tony was staring, internally he was replaying the conversation to pinpoint exactly what was causing Peter to lose his mind.

Oh. _Oh_. Huh. _Really_? “Kid. Answer me honestly. Have you been obsessing over this table-”

“I haven’t!”

“-and staring at it for like, an entire year-”

“I didn’t do that!”

“-because not only did you want to sit at it. You wanted to sit at the head of the big long table. Am I correct?”

“...no. That’d be dumb. Why would I get excited over that? It’s just a table. Who cares where you sit?”

Tony stared up at him a little longer until Peter dropped to the floor and sighed, turning bright red, “can I though?”

Tony burst out laughing, tears in his eyes. God, he’d been dealing with Peter for a year now but by far, this had to be the most child-like moment he’d had with the kid. It was brilliant, he loved it. Sometimes he forgot that Peter was still just a young teenager with how much of an adult he normally resembled. But this? This was the child side coming through full force.

He didn’t exactly spend a huge amount of time around kids but wanting to sit at the head of the table, specifically a big long one? Being excited to sit there? It just screamed kid.

Once he stopped wheezing and wiped his eyes, he looked back at Peter who was even redder than before if that was possible. “Please do, kid. I’ll be upset if you don’t at this point.”

Tony walked over and wrapped Peter in a hug. “I can’t believe this is what’s been on your mind for over a year. A year! Knock yourself out. Play the head role.”

“I just think it’d be cool to see down the whole table, that’s all. Plus it’s like, an important spot. I...want to sit there. Just once! I’ve always wanted to.”

Tony snorted. “Sure thing, Peter. Whatever makes you happy.”

**Author's Note:**

> noooo this story totally isn't about me finding way too much joy in sitting at the head of the table what r u talking about haha such a weird assumption to jump to
> 
> but if it was, theoretically, i would JUMP at the chance to sit at the head of a giant long table...theoretically, of course
> 
> for as long as i can remember, my parents have always seated my sister and i at the heads of the table. you'd think i'd be over it by now and y e t. i'm very excited to sit there.  
> anyway, merry christmas to anyone who celebrates it, there r 5 hours to go until we hit christmas day here in good ol' zealand. happy holidays to anyone else.


End file.
